Price: Rs 36,990 + Rs 13,000 for 2nd screen
Colour: Illusion Sunset, Arora Silver, New Black
Specs: 6.8-inch P-OLED Cinematic FullVision display, 2,460 x 1,080p resolution with 395PPI, Android 10, Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor, 6GB RAM, 128GB storage, microSD (up to 2TB), 48MP + 8MP Wide-angle + 5MP Depth camera, 16MP front camera, 4G, 4,300mAh
In the Box: LG Velvet, Charger, USB Data Cable and SIM Ejector Pin; Dual Screen can be purchased separately
The charm and allure of using a dual-screen is enticing and fascinating for both productivity and well, bragging rights. While the LG Velvet may not be able to emulate the productivity or evoke the excitement, it certainly makes up for what it lacks with affordable screen extension proliferating productivity and entertainment experience.
LG Velvet is good looking, has a nice screen too. The display is bright and legible in bright daylight. It’s ideal for reading and streaming videos. Triple camera module at the rear captures real life-like images without over-processing or losing details. Even the camera app is clutter-free with just a handful of modes at the bottom — photo, portrait, manual camera, video, time-lapse. Night view, panorama, slo-mo and even the YouTube Live are accessible with an additional tap. Be it entertainment or work, just like any other smartphone in its category, it performs well. Some might consider the Qualcomm 845 a little outdated but it all boils down the performance, which was smooth and lag-free.
It’s a good mid-range smartphone but the experience ameliorates with the dual-screen case (I prefer calling it a mod). The mod with a small screen at the front, and a full 6.8-inch inside, actually makes it three screens on the Velvet. The small one on the cover comes handy — it displays time, battery, and notifications including incoming call. I answered the incoming calls using the Google Assistant key on the side.
The inside screen on the mod is identical to the primary one on the Velvet, and can also be used as a primary screen. The small icon on the left of the primary screen presents with various options to use the screens. I could swap screen, show main on dual-screen, show dual screen on main, and even put the main screen to sleep. For me, the best thing was to launch two different apps simultaneously. For instance, playing browser on the left and Gmail on the right, YouTube on the left and Facebook on the right.
Browsing was so convenient on the Whale browser as double-tapping on the link opened it in the other screen. While composing emails in Gmail in wide view, the primary screen was converted into a virtual keyboard. And while using the camera, last captured image can be viewed on the secondary screen. Same is with gaming as the gamepad feature has been enabled for the second screen. As the case can be held anywhere between zero to 360 degree, I was able to use it in laptop mode and tent mode, depending upon the app.
However, the secondary display won’t power on if the battery is below 15 per cent. The Velvet has a Type-C port for charging and is accompanied with a small magnetic charger to juice up the phone with the case on.
The dual-screen mod has all the ingredients to become a standalone accessory for candy-bar handsets that have USB-C as the charging port and the size in common with the LG Velvet. Imagine if you too could experience the dual-screen on your Android handset. If only LG would extend the dual-screen mod to other brand devices, it could create ripples in this new evolving space and open up a completely new category of accessories.
